1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical compact disk drive, more particularly to an optical compact disk drive with a vibration-and-noise attenuating mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
The data reading speed for optical compact disk drives has been considerably increased in recent years. However, noise and vibration arising from rotations of a compact disk and a motor of the optical compact disk drive are also significantly increased due to the increase in the aforesaid reading speed.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a conventional optical compact disk drive that includes a housing 91 and a mounting seat 92 mounted in the housing 91. The mounting seat 92 includes a disk-supporting tray 95 formed with a disk-receiving recess 951 for receiving a compact disk 96 therein. The disk-supporting tray 95 is further formed with an elongated opening 955 that extends from a center of the disk-receiving recess 951 to a rear peripheral portion 94 of the disk-supporting tray 95 for exposing a rotary shaft 93 and a data reading head 97 to the compact disk 96. A pair of air-communicating openings 98 are formed in a front peripheral portion 99 of the disk-supporting tray 95 for permitting a vertical air flow from a bottom side of the disk-supporting tray 95 to a top side of the disk-supporting tray 95 due to pressure difference between the top and bottom sides upon rotation of the compact disk 96. Since there are more components (not shown) mounted on the mounting seat 92 below the disk-supporting tray 95 than above the disk-supporting tray 95, a tangential air flow (indicated as arrow (A) in FIG. 2) arising from the rotation of the compact disk 96 at the space below the disk-supporting tray 95 will have a lower speed than that at the space above the disk-supporting tray 95, which, in turn, results in the aforesaid pressure difference and the vertical air flow. However, due to the presence of the elongated opening 955 (which extends in an asymmetric manner relative to the disk-receiving recess 951), the data reading head 97 and peripheral components (not shown) for the data reading head 97, highly turbulent air flow tends to occur at a position adjacent to the elongated opening 955. As a result, undesired vibration of the compact disk 96 and loud noise can occur when the compact disk 96 rotates at a relatively high speed.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical compact disk drive with a vibration-and-noise attenuating mechanism that is capable of overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the present invention, there is provided an optical compact disk drive that comprises: a housing confining a chamber therein and having a front opening; a mounting seat with a disk-supporting tray that is mounted movably in the chamber, that is movable inwardly and outwardly of the housing through the front opening in a horizontal direction, and that is recessed to form a disk-receiving recess which is adapted to receive a compact disk therein, the disk-receiving recess being confined by a recess-confining wall that has a circular base portion extending in the horizontal direction, a front riser portion which is circumferentially disposed around the base portion adjacent to the front opening and which extends from the base portion in a transverse direction relative to the base portion so as to confine a front side of the disk-receiving recess, and a rear riser portion which is circumferentially disposed around the base portion at a position opposite to the front riser portion and which extends from the base portion in the transverse direction so as to confine a rear side of the disk-receiving recess, the disk-supporting tray having a front peripheral portion that extends frontwardly from the front riser portion in the horizontal direction, and a rear peripheral portion that is opposite to the front peripheral portion and that extends rearwardly from the rear riser portion in the horizontal direction, the disk-supporting tray further having opposite top and bottom sides and being formed with an elongated opening that extends rearwardly from a center of the base portion to the rear peripheral portion; and a vibration-and-noise attenuating mechanism having a pair of front air-communicating openings formed in the front peripheral portion, and at least a rear air-communicating opening that is formed in the rear peripheral portion and that is disposed adjacent to the elongated opening, thereby permitting formation of a vertical air flow from the bottom side of the disk-supporting tray to the top side of the disk-supporting tray through the front and rear air-communicating openings due to pressure difference between the top and bottom sides upon rotation of the compact disk.